This presentation will outline the three phases of the
FAA’s SMS Voluntary Program leading to a FAA
accepted SMS. The SMS Voluntary Program meets and
exceeds the requirements of the international standard
ICAO annex 19 Framework. We will review the Certificate
Holder’s requirements, the Certificate Management
Team's Validation Activities and the role of the SMS
Program Office in accepting the certificate holder’s
SMS Voluntary Program.
The SMS Voluntary Program entails three basic phases
titled “Preparation, Validation, and Administration.”
This streamlined view is intended to bring a common
sense, plain language approach to what many consider
to be a complex and all-encompassing acceptance process.
To begin the process The Certificate Holder must
present a letter to their FAA certificate management
office requesting entry to the SMS Voluntary Program.
This letter must contain the Certificate Holder’s name
FAA designator, a specific request to join the SMS
Voluntary Program, and a commitment to provide the
necessary resources to establish and maintain a Safety
Management System.
The second step is to submit a schedule of events to
their certificate management team principal inspectors
within 90 days of being granted entry into the SMS
Voluntary Program. A schedule of events consists of
two dates. The first date is when the required
documentation will be ready for FAA review. The second
date is when the certificate holder is ready for the
FAA to conduct its on-site assessment of the
certificate holder’s SMS. The third step is the
submission of a compliance statement to the certificate
management team. A compliance statement is a document
that identifies where each SMS requirement is addressed
in the certificate holder’s manual system. The last
step of phase 1 is the Certificate Holder’s completion
of its own, internal self-assessment. The certificate
holder’s internal self-assessment will help ensure that
the FAA’s on-site validation assessment of the
certificate holder’s SMS will be successful.
In the second phase of SMS implementation the FAA
certificate management team will: Review and accept the
certificate holder’s schedule of events. This step
will help guarantee that FAA resources will be
available when the certificate holder is ready to have
it’s SMS validated for acceptance. The certificate
management team will review the certificate holder’s
compliance statement to verify that the proposed
processes meet the requirements listed in the SMS
Voluntary Program Standard. Then the certificate
management team will conduct a manual review to
determine that the certificate holder’s documented
processes will provide solid employee guidance and is
not just a lot of policy statements. During this
step, the CMT may offer suggestion for process
improvement to help ensure that the intent of the SMS
Voluntary Program requirements are being appropriately
addressed by the certificate holder. Once the manual
review is accomplished and the certificate holder
verifies that its system is in place and working, the
Certificate Management Team will use the second date on
the certificate holder’s schedule of events to plan its
on-site performance validation of the certificate
holder’s SMS processes. If the on-site validation
assessments are successful, the Certificate Management
Team will record it’s results in SAS and recommend the
certificate holder’s SMS be accepted by the SMS
Program Office who sponsors the Voluntary Program.
In the Third and final phase of the 3 phased approach,
the SMSPO will take action on the CMT’s recommendation
to accept the certificate holder’s SMS. The SMS
Program Office will issue a letter confirming the
certificate holder’s SMS meets the SMS voluntary program
standard. The letter of SMS acceptance also outlines the
expectation that the certificate holder will continue to
apply the accepted processes of their Safety Management
System to remain in conformance with the SMS voluntary
Program Standard. As you can see the phased process
really is as simple as 1, 2, 3
Thank you for watching this presentation. If you have
any questions please contact the SMS Program Office
as noted on slide.